The Citrix Ready program is the primary partner technology alliance program at Citrix. The program has received tremendous response from its inception in 2006 and has verified more than a 1000 products which are featured on the Citrix Ready catalog.

Citrix Ready program offers its partner a unique opportunity to promote their products online and is designed to highlight the product features and demonstrate the products compatibility with Citrix. Some of the essential benefits of the program for Citrix partners include;

• Generating new revenue opportunities for partner products
• Increasing exposure to Citrix customers and channels
• Improving joint customer satisfaction  
• Gain access to Citrix "technology insiders" via forums, newsletters and webinars  
  
  

The program also offers its partners technical and marketing benefits through "My Citrix" which is a private Citrix partner portal from where partners can;

• Utilize NFR licenses and discounted technical support incidences
• Joint solution marketing opportunities
• Access to Citrix Key Play materials and marketing templates
• Quarterly Technical and Program Webinars
  

You can learn more about the Citrix Ready program by logging onto citrix.com/ready. You can also follow the program activities on Twitter and receive daily program updates on product verifications.

Or any Application for that matter.

Chris Fleck gave fair warning. I'm here to tell you that it works and its here, now. The computing model just got turned on it's ear.

Why would you want this? Because it increases your mobility without having to reboot your laptop everytime you want to use it, it saves time and money, and it delivers any Windows platform or application to your iPhone, iPod or iPad.

What was previously just a future scenario is now a reality.

Citrix runs Windows and Windows Applications from a central server, called XenDesktop, and pipes it out to your mobile device through the NetScaler AGEE. This is perfect for the iPad which has a screen size of 1024x768. Now the touch, squeeze and pinch is available for all of your Enterprise applications, making them usable on an iPad.

The small form factor of the iPhone was a little hindering for Enterprise applications. Now, with the iPad and Citrix Receiver, Enterprise Apps are usable. Although, while putting together this POC the Product Manager sent me an eMail from Microsoft Office 2010 running on a Windows 7 Desktop ... from his iPhone. This confirms that form factors and the computing model is about to be rocked.

The magic is in the way that Citrix hosts the Windows desktops and delivers them to the mobile device. The advantage is all of the computing power of multi-core processors and large memory can still be utilized by Windows, while all of your touching and pinching power is localized at your mobile device.

All of the communication is done over secure tunnels, so all of the information is secure.

For this Proof of Concept, We started with XenServer, installed XenApp and XenDesktop, built a NetScaler to Front-end and secure the infrastructure, and fired up our iPhones and iPads. Its fast, easy and cool. We used the Citrix Web Interface for authentication to keep it simple. You can also use LDAP or any other type of authentication method.

Guides

You can have this setup, by following the guides we wrote up as a result of this testing.

Download the Deployment Guide - ICA Proxy for XenApp & XenDesktop for Citrix Receiver for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Download the Deployment Guide - ICA Proxy for iPhone, using LDAP authentication.

Delivery Center has arrived.

Products

XenServer is free

Get XenDesktop here.

Download NetScaler VPX here

Citrix Receiver is available for Free on the App Store

Get an iPhone, iPod or iPad from Apple.

Watch it live

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

Since I wrote my blog post about delivering VoIP apps with XenDesktop 4 and HDX RealTime, numerous readers have kindly posted comments or emailed me about the great results they're getting with our new optimized-for-speech audio codec. And don't forget, XenDesktop 4 introduced isochronous USB support, too. One customer wrote to share their experience using a federated Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) infrastructure with Wyse HDX Ready thin clients, HP server hardware, Polycom USB handsets and Microsoft webcams. Without naming this major telecommunications company or disclosing any confidential information, here are some of the juicy details I can share about their experience delivering Microsoft Office Communicator from XenDesktop 4.

The configuration:

• XenDesktop 4 using FlexCast delivery technology and VM-based Windows 7 VDI desktops
• Wyse R90LW HDX Ready dual-monitor thin clients running the Citrix 11.2 online plug-in
• HP ProLiant DL380 G5 server with XenServer 5.5
• 100 Mbps LAN and 5 Mbps ADSL Internet connection
• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
• Microsoft Office 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 R2
• Polycom CX200 "Catalina" USB telephones
• Microsoft LifeCam NX-3000 webcams

Their experience:

"IM, voice chat and video conferencing, desktop sharing and even voice-chat-over-federation are all functioning perfectly well without any issues and with a very good quality (as good as on a normal PC). We were very excited about it... We were pretty astonished about the stability and quality even over federation!"

Derek Thorslund
Citrix Product Strategist, HDX

We recently conducted a series of tests to determine the limits of VM density for a single XenServer 5.5 host running XenDesktop VMs (XenServer Single Server Scalability with XenDesktop). Previously, our VM-per-host limit for typical server-based workloads had been only 50. We knew, as did our customers and partners from their own experience running XenDesktop workloads on XenServer, that the real number of desktop VMs possible on a single host was considerably higher. The results of our tests were better than expected---130 Windows XP desktops on a 72GB, dual socket, quad core (Xeon x5570) Intel Nehalem host. 

Commenting in his blog Desktop Virtualization Performance Testing, Simon Bramfitt said of these results "This is a significant improvement on Citrix's previously published results, and certainly enough to bring it back into line with results VMware previously published". No argument there. It's significant in that it puts to rest the question whether or not XenDesktop together with XenServer can stand up to its competitors and achieve similar ROI based on real-world scenarios. He also noted that as important as the numbers are themselves, our decision to use a third party test program from Login Consultants (Login VSI 2.0) as the basis for these tests was the right one. We agree. Login VSI is the benchmarking tool behind Project Virtual Reality Check (http://www.virtualrealitycheck.net/) and is poised to become the standard for virtual desktop performance benchmarking (if it hasn't already done so). Using Login VSI, we were able to establish not just the number of XenDesktop VMs we could run on a XenServer host, but more importantly, how many of these VMs could run under a considerable workload while meeting the standard for acceptable performance at the same time. We knew that by choosing to use Login VSI vs. an internal test program, these results would be better able to stand up to scrutiny in the market, the truest measure of performance.  

Incidentally, 130 Windows XP VMs on a dual socket, quad core Nehalem server translates to 16.25 VMs per physical CPU core. VMW made it known just a few days ago that they had set their own sites on achieving 16 VMs per core VMware to increase consolidation ratio to 16 VMs/core?, but has yet to actually demonstrate that it can be done. Citrix, on the other hand, already has.

As Architect of Application Streaming, one of the things I do along with the other Citrix architects is worry about how to build the layers of cake.  Operating system on the bottom, Applications in the middle and user profile on the top.  We gathered a few months back to work on this problem and some pretty cool stuff came out of it.  The concepts apply to XenApp and XenDesktop.  Here's the high level view:
I'm going to focus primarily on XenDesktop.  The same ideas apply to XenApp hosted on Virtual Machines as they do to XenDesktop running virtual desktops.  One way or another, the "system" has to be put together and that means assembling an operating system, applications and user data.

Starting at the top: User data.  With Roaming Profiles or Citrix Profile Manager, the application settings are already roamed as a common occurance.  This is the least interesting of the layers in this post.

The quick version is that if a user visits machine A today and machine Q tomorrow, the profile manager will move the applications settings from A to Q.  At logon/logoff the user profile is synchronized to some central machine, where it is later copied from to the new execution machine.  This kind of technology has been around for a very long time, though there still exists some art to "doing it properly".  The "properly" part says that you cannot ASSUME that a user will not be logged on to multiple machines at once.  This is the classic "last logoff wins" problem.  Thankfully, the Citrix Profile Manager does not suffer these problems, so this top layer of the layers of cake is already baked and ready for icing!

A side note is "user data" is over stated, the user profile is really worrying about Application Settings.  The user's data, as in DOCUMENTS, will normally be redirected to some network server. 

Next, the "bottom", the operating system:

Notice I skipped apps for the moment.  Apps are the point of this post, so I'm saving them for last.

Every machine, virtual or real, needs an operating system.  For real machines, no problem, INSTALL IT locally and it will still be there the next time you power the machine on.  For Virtual Machines, this same INSTALL IT solution could be used with one disk image per machine.  Store the image away at "power down" and bring it back at "power up".  This will RUN, but it will sure be a PIG on disk usage.  It will also be harder to maintain as there will be a separate disk image for every virtual machine.  The whole appeal of bringing things into the data center is that it makes things easier to maintain.  If all you do is convert physical hard disks to virtual hard disks, you haven't really worked on the problem of simplifying maintenance!

A side note: With real machines, you can also get to the ONE to Many maintenance aspects, Provisioning Services does this for real hardware just as it can for virtual hardware.

Back to the virtual world:

To get this "right", we need ONE Operating System image and ONE image for each application to go along with ONE user profile.  In this world, the operating system maintainer, maintains the OS and each application owner maintains their respective application.  In some environments, these are the same person, but in concept, they are all separate and even if they are the same person, we do not want application content to pollute the OS image.  If that happens, then every time ANY application needs update, the OS image must be updated and versioned => inefficient.

Cashes, caches and more caches!

With a virtual machine, the virtual machine manager maintains a "write back cache" for the "machine".  Pooled desktop here, there is ONE image for the operating system and each VM as it runs has disk space that holds the changes to the disk as the machine runs.  When the user logs off, the machine powers down and the virtual machine manager THROWS AWAY everything that was written to the base machine.

This "throw away" is necessary as the disk is a "block" entity and the only way that the single base image can be updated is if it is updated in ONE place.  On a future logon, the pool manager will have queued up a pristine machine, with the LATEST AND GREATEST version of the operating system image, which will bring the virtual machine to life - while implementing yet another write back cache for the machine. 

Applications, the point of this post

Application Streaming in the graphic above is the Application Virtualization system bringing in application content.  This is the artist correctly now titled the "plugin for offline applications".  I'm getting used to it.

The App Virtualization system could also be Microsoft App-V or potentially even some other solutions though I do find it easier to manage the caches for systems that have installed agents.  As Architect of App Streaming, I'm working the Citrix side today; the concepts are the same.

Given a virtual machine is running and you want to get apps onto it, what are your choices?

1) Install them into the base image.  We covered this already - it's a losing gig.

2) Presentation delivery.  Publish from XenApp and deliver to XenDesktop; HDX gets it to the user.

3) App Virtualize the applications to get them "into" the hosted desktop.

Today, we're worring about "3".

Given we have a virtual machine, anything we populate into the virtual machine will be a DISK WRITE.

The fundamental guiding principle: Disk writes are BAD!  We want everything to be a "read".

When the OS runs, we want the system to populate pieces of the OS as needed via block based fills from the virtual machine manager or disk subsystem.  When we run applications, we want the virtual machine manager to READ data from the application store and ... (finally getting to the meat of this post) ... NEVER perform a disk write.

Application Streaming has a long history of delivering application content to physical machines.  On physical machines, disk writes are fine, they are a one time cost and the up front cost actually has long term benefit to minimize network activity on future executions.  With virtual machines, disk writes are evil and they are a recurring "every logon" cost. 

We need disk writes to go away, which leads me to one of my favorite statements related to layers of cake.

• We gotta get Application Streaming out of the STREAMING business.

This task much better to hand off to the virtual machine manager or to Provisioning Services, or to the enterprise disk subsystem.  Whatever the the technique of mounting disk space, all of these folks will do a more efficient job, if the streaming system somehow makes everything a "read".  

In the layers of glass, the streaming system populates stuff into the execution cache, which is called RadeCache, named after the directory that holds the application execution content.  I have also previously described that deploy should never happen on a virtual machine based execution, so thankfully we can avoid all of that disk activity.

How do we get application content into a virtual machine?  Answer: MOUNT IT!

The Application Hub is the file server that holds the execution content.  In a physical world, the streaming part of application streaming deals with COPYING content from the Application Hub onto the physical execution machine.  In a Virtual World, we want everything to already be in place, so that application execution is based on disk reads and the disk write generating "streaming" aspects of Application Streaming, never occur.

One complication to date has been that the streaming system stores stuff on the Application Hub in compresses container files, CAB files.  These are going away ([link|http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/12/04/App Streaming - CAB to DIR]) in a future release, to be replaced with decompressed directory images of the same content.  

Putting it all together

Once we know that we don't want the streaming system to "stream", it can instead focus on application isolation and application delivery; delivering "installed" applications to single instance machines, but letting other pieces of the puzzle take care of the streaming aspects.

The Deploy space is not used; the RadeCache - is necessary.  Stick with me on how we make it go away too.

Given that the RadeCache space and the streaming profile execution content on the App Hub have the same format, there are things we can do to "mount" the Application Hub directly into the execution space.  With the "next" streaming client, this is easier because the App Hub storage format is changed to match the execution format commonly found in the RadeCache.

This can STILL be accomplished NOW using the released 5.2 version of the streaming client.  

The example App I will use is Textpad.  To follow along, profile this up and store it some place convenient.  I'm using Windows 7 machine with the 5.2 level offline plugin and skipping all the publishing aspects.

Start up a command prompt (run as administrator).  I follow with a cut / pasting of a bunch of commands which I entered to prove this can work with 5.2.  After that, we'll talk about what each of them do.

c:
md \apphub & cd \apphub
icacls . /grant:r Ctx_StreamingSvc:(R)
icacls . /grant:r Ctx_StreamingSvc:(OI)(CI)(IO)(R)
mkdir textpad
xcopy \\ConvenientPlaceFromEarlier\textpad textpad\. /s /e
cd textpad
md guid_v
cd guid_v
extract ..\guid_v.cab *.*   (Extract is from Microsoft CAB SDK and requires *.* rather than *)

cd \program files\citrix\radecache
mklink /d guid_v c:\apphub\textpad\guid_v   (Creates a JUNCTION to the mounted App Hub)
exit (close the command prompt window)
Finally run the thing (a really short version of publishing the the AMC).

start "" "%PROGFILES%\Citrix\Streaming Client\RadeRun.exe" /package:"c:\apphub\textpad\textpad.profile" /app:"Textpad"

WOW!  That was alot of stuff.

Given you did the start above, you've already seen the application run and come to life, with minimal disk writes!  Drum roll.

Here's what happened.  

The MKDIR of C:\AppHub simulated the MOUNTING of the App Hub onto the local machine.

The icacls commands gave the streaming service READ privilege to this space.  The streaming service runs on a named user account and by default it can only modify a few places on disk, like RadeCache and Deploy.  I think this is unnecessary as all users on the machine will automatically get read access to this space due to inherritance from the root.  Still, I stuck it in there in case it is a required element.  If so, you'll need this in the system configuration when the mount point is created.

The streaming service will "believe" that this space is local when it is really backed up by some XenServer, Provisioning Server, Hyper-V, ESX, Disk magic system.  One way or another, it's a MOUNT POINT and the streaming service has privilege to read it.

Why local?  The isolation system looks at all disk activity at the start and if it is "network", it jumpts out of the way and doesn't mess with it.  So, the streaming system MUST believe that this space is "local".  For all these virtual worlds, this is "easy".

Next trick is that the streaming sytem will want to populate the RadeCache at runtime, we don't want this to occur.  Instead, we want the streaming system to BELIEVE that the RadeCache is "fully populated".

Creating the JUNCTIOND at the RadeCache space, the streaming system will believe that the RadeCache space is already there, when it looks inside, it will see that the files are already in place and it won't have any reason to want to write more to this space.  Notice that with the "linkd" commands in place, when the streaming system looks into the RadeCache space, we will have LIED to it to instead sent it to the C:\AppHub space.

Lying to the Lying system - wonderful!

Deep down in the streaming streaming, the device driver that does the file system filtering isn't fooled by any of this application level nonsense; it sees the "real" location, C:\AppHub.  The isolation system insists that the RadeCache space for the application content be on local storage, and it is, as far as it knows.

C:\AppHub is "local" as far as this virtual machine is concerend.

With the call to RadeRun, the application is launched and comes to life; skipping publishing.

The application comes to life and things are happy.

Publishing

When publishing applications in the Access Management Console, one of the fields is the UNC path to the App Hub.  This can be a UNC path or a HTTP path, but either way, the AMC is told where the App Hub is located and when applications are enumerated via PNAgent/Web Interface, this information is relayed to the streaming launcher for app launch.  This means that the publishing has to reference C:\AppHub or possibly a local host based reference of local machine based UNC reference.  The AMC and the execution machine both have to believe that C:\AppHub is local storage.  You can also create a LINKD based junction on the AMC machine that reflects to the "real" app hub on the network.  The AMC will believe that this is the local machine space and will relay this to the execution machine.

I dream of a future where the streaming client could override what the AMC says to use and instead use a fixed location that the administrator says to use.  Just dreaming... 

House cleaning 

One of the things that the streaming system does is clean house in the RadeCache.  If it exceeds high water mark in size, the streaming system will launch a reaper thread that deletes things until the house is clean.  Here's a link that describes how this works.  Since we only granted the streaming service "(R)" Read access to the local machine AppHub, the streaming services' attempts to house clean in RadeCache space that is really the AppHub space will be unsuccessful - it will have no choice but to "push on" to look for some other file to erase.  

For this reason, in a XenDesktop space, we should either put everything into the read-only space where the Streaming Service can't delete it or we should set the cache high-water mark sufficiently high that the house cleaning thread will never trigger; in reality, we should do both.   Leaving the RadeCache space writable by the streamign service allows it to run applciations that haven't been published or managed into the App Hub, so this is good - though that space would be loaded on each logon to the virtual machine.

Hope this is useful.

Joe Nord

Product Architect - Application Streaming and User Profile Manager 

Citrix Systems 

There are several pros and cons when choosing between blade or rack servers related to power consumption, consolidated networking, manageability and cost.  These comparisons are readily available over the Internet, but what makes one preferable to the other in a XenDesktop deployment?  Let's take a look at a few of the differences.
 

Higher Density XenServer Resource Pools

Rack servers offer more quad-socket models compared to blades and also offer greater memory capacity and the latest processors.  This translates into higher VM density per server which is important because the size of a XenServer resource pool is limited by the number of XenServer hosts and not by the number of VMs.  So by using quad-socket rack servers you can have a greater number of virtual desktop VMs per XenServer resource pool.  In a large XenDesktop environment this means fewer resource pools to manage.
Advantage: Rack Servers

Isolated OS Streaming Traffic

Streaming the OS from the PVS host to the virtual desktop VMs can take significant network bandwidth especially when the virtual desktops are booting.  This OS streaming traffic can be isolated per blade chassis.  Each VM server would use the PVS host located in the same blade chassis but could failover to alternate PVS hosts in another chassis if needed.  Setting up an isolated network with rack servers is possible but is much more complex.
Advantage: Blades

Lower Storage Costs

Each virtual desktop VM needs a cache to temporarily store the "writes" while streaming a PVS standard image.  Depending on your environment this could require 1GB to 5GB or more of storage per virtual desktop VM but could also be used for storing EdgeSight user performance data or any persistent data such as anti-virus definition files.  Fast RAID storage options with local hard disks are possible with rack servers which is important because local storage is much less expensive than SAN storage even when using thin provisioning on the SAN.  Having this write back cache located on the same server will usually be easier to configure rather than putting all the write back caches on the SAN.  One downside is that dynamic load balancing of the running virtual desktop VMs is not available since the storage for the virtual desktops are local to the VM server.
Advantage: Rack Servers

Summary 

In conclusion both choices offer benefits in a XenDesktop environment.  I personally prefer rack servers because of their ability to use several local hard disks.  Keep in mind that your choices for network switches and network storage could significantly swing your decision one way or the other.  If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

As a best practive in virtual environments you should leave the DVD-Drive empty if you don't have to use it because it can prevent you from doing a live migration e.g. if the local DVD drive from a XenServer host is mapped or to start a VM on another host if the local DVD drive of the host is mapped. If your XenServer Pool is very small it is very easy to take a fast look where a drive is mapped or not. In a bigger environment this is not so easy.

Therefore I have created a small script for this:

 #!/bin/bash

#####################################################################################
##                                                                                 ##
##                                                                                 ##
##  file :          all-dvd-eject.sh                                               ##
##  description :   ejects all DVDs from VMs running in a XenServer pool           ##
##                                                                                 ##
##  parameter :     eject|dry                                                      ##
##                  - eject will throw out all mapped DVD drives                   ##
##                  - "dry" will show you which VM has mapped a DVD                ##
##                                                                                 ##
##  example:        ./all-dvd-eject.sh eject                                       ##
##                  ./all-dvd-eject.sh dry                                         ##
##                                                                                 ##
##    known issues:   - The script doesn't work on VMs namend "Control"            ##
##                                                                                 ##
##    Use this script in your own risk and be careful to use it in productive      ##
##  environments. This script was tested in a very simple way and just on          ##
##  XenServer 5.5 with update 1. Therefore if you want to use it be sure           ##
##  to do intensive tests for your environment.                                    ##
##                                                                                 ##
##  copyright (c) Jens Brunsen, Citrix Systems                                     ##
#####################################################################################

echo

if [ $# -gt 0 ] ; then

    VMLIST=`xe vm-list | grep "uuid ( RO) " | awk '{print $5}'`
        
    for VM in $VMLIST
    do
        VMNAME=`xe vm-list uuid=$VM | grep "name-label ( RW)" | awk '{print $4}'`
        if [ "$VMNAME" != "Control" ] ; then
            DVDSTATE=`xe vm-cd-list uuid=$VM | grep "empty ( RO)" | awk '{print $4}'`

            if [ "$1" = "eject" ] ; then
                if [ "$DVDSTATE" = "false" ] ; then
                    xe vm-cd-eject uuid=$VM
                    echo "$VMNAME : DVD/ISO ejected"
                fi
            fi
        
            if [ "$1" = "dry" ] ; then
                if [ "$DVDSTATE" = "false" ] ; then
                    echo "$VMNAME : DVD/ISO attached"
                else
                    echo "$VMNAME : empty"
                fi
            fi
        fi
    done
    
else
    echo all-dvd-eject.sh:
    echo "  error: Missing parameter."
    echo "  usage: all_dvd_eject [eject|dry]"
fi

echo

The script can be run with two different options: dry or eject.

 
Dry-Option:

    ./all-dvd-eject.sh dry

If you run the script with the dry option it will list all virtual machines in a pool and show you which vm has mounted something at the DVD drive. It doesn't matter if there is mapped the local DVD drive or a ISO file from a iso repository.

The output will look like:

Eject-Option:
    ./all-dvd-eject.sh eject

If you run the script with the eject option it will walk trough all virtual machines in a pool and look if there is mounted something at the DVD drive. If so the script ejects the mounted DVD/ISO

The output will look like:

I hope this script will help anyone managing his environment. Therefore that this is just a small example how to manage the DVD drives feel free to take this and change it to your own way. Please keep in mind that you have to test everything before you will use it in a productive environment.

regards, Jens

デスクトップ仮想化製品を評価する時、WAN環境やLAN環境で使用できる帯域が限られているネットワークでのパフォーマンスを評価する事は重要なポイントである。ネットワークシミュレーションソフトかなり高価なので頭を悩ませている方も多いのではないだろうか。
そこで無料のWANemというソフトを使用して簡易的にネットワークをシミュレーションを行うことができるのでその方法を紹介したいと思う。

物理マシンを用意して、ISOイメージをCDに焼いてCDからブートしてもいいが、今回はXenServerからISOイメージをブートする方法を使い、XenServer1台とクライアントPC1台でこの環境を作ってみようと思う。そうすることで、デモ環境なんかにも応用がかのうである。なお、WANemには色々な方法でネットワークをシミュレーションをできるが、今回は最も簡単な、NIC1枚の方式で、ルーティングテーブルを変更する方法でシミュレーションする。

1. WANemのサイトよりWANemv2.2.iso.bz2をダウンロード
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wanem/files/
2. WANemv2.2.iso.bz2を解凍し、共有フォルダに置く
3. XenServerのメニューより[ストレージ] - [新規ストレージリポジトリ]
4. ISOライブラリより、[Windowsファイル共有(CIFS)]を選択して、次へ

5. 任意の名前をつけて（英語）、共有名でWindowsの共有フォルダのパスを指定、[異なるユーザー名を使用する]を選択しユーザー名とパスワードを指定し、完了
例：\\192.168.1.249\iso

6. CIFS_ISO_MiscというSRが作成されたことを確認

7. XenCenterのメニューより、[VM] - [新規]を選択
8. テンプレートよりOther install mediaを選択し、次へ
9. 任意の名前を指定して、次へ
10. ISOイメージより、WANemv2.2.isoを選択し、次へ
11. この仮想マシンを起動するXenServerを選択し、次へ
12. [VCPUの数]: 1、[メモリ]: 512Mを指定して、次へ
13. 仮想ディスクは追加せず、次へ
14. 1 NICを追加して、次へ
15. VMを自動的に起動をチェックして、次へ
16. WANem2.2の仮想マシンが起動され、Knoopixの起動画面が表示され、起動ログがログされる
17. Do you want to configure all interfaces via DHCP (y/n)と聞かれるので、nを選択
18. IPアドレス情報を指定し、エンターキーを押下し、Save

19. Passwordを設定して、エンターキーを押下
20. Browserより、http://192.168.1.251/WANem（大文字小文字に注意）にアクセス

21. WANシミュレーションを行いたいクライアントとサーバー間のルーティングテーブルにそれぞれの宛先用のデフォルトゲートウェイをWANemのIPアドレスを指定する
例
クライアントPCでシミュレーションするNICのIDを調べる

route print
===========================================================================
インターフェイス一覧
 12...00 16 cf 11 4b 0f ......11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter
 11...00 16 d3 25 ff e8 ......Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection    1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1

クライアントPCのルーティングテーブルを変更

route add -p <server ip アドレス> MASK 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.251 metric 2 if 11

同様にサーバーも変更する

route add -p <client ip アドレス> MASK 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.251 metric 2 if 11

22. これで、クライアントPCとサーバーPC間でWANシミュレーションが可能になる
23. http://192.168.1.251/WANem より、Basic Modeを選択し、Choose BWで帯域を指定、Delay time(ms)で遅延を指定する

24. クライアントにCitrix Online Pluginをいれて、接続先にXenAppもしくは、XenDesktopの仮想デスクトップを構築し、WANemでシミュレーションすると、HDXの使用帯域や遅延ネットワークでのパフォーマンスを体感できる。

Kimihiko Kitase
Lead Product Marketing Manager
twitter: @kkitase
仮想化技術情報wiki: http://v12n.jp

Happy 2010 to all! 

...and, not to dwell in the past, but remember that little dust-up around VMworld last year?  I don't want to dredge up the much-debated conversation around  participation policies for industry events, but I made a promise to the industry that Synergy 2010 (San Francisco and Berlin) would be much more open, transparent and inclusive.  To honor that promise, here's a status report:  

Open Call for Topics:  We announced this on September 14, 2009 and received a great number of really strong submissions from folks across the industry.  To select the slate of content, we assembled a panel of analysts and practitioners across the industry that consisted of:

• Christian Reilly, manager of global systems engineering, Bechtel Corporation 
• Shirland Whipple, director of IT infrastructure, Cox Communications
• Mark Bowker, analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group 
• Paul Myerson, senior channel analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group
• James Staten, principal analyst, Forrester Research
• Cindy Borovick, research vice president for IDC's Datacenter Networks service, IDC
• Troy Stevens, principal enterprise architect, Mutual of Omaha

This all-star team reviewed each submission and made their selections.  While our event team is in the process of notifying the selected speakers, I can tell you that  over 40 percent of the sessions delivered in the tracks are from non-Citrix speakers, and that number could grow as we finalize our IT Business and Strategy track in conjunction with a major media partner. 

Open Call for Award Nominations:  At Synergy, Citrix has historically recognized companies who are using virtualization and networking technologies in new and noteworthy ways to drive innovation in their business.  These Innovation Award participants have always been reviewed by a selection panel that has included customers and analysts, and the winners have historically been determined by popular vote.  The nomination process, however, was a bit like the secret vote in the Sistine Chapel.  We've cleared the smoke, thrown open the doors and have invited the industry to nominate companies that are using virtualization, networking and cloud technology to create a dynamic, agile business environment.    Of course, we'd like them to be Citrix customers, but given our 20 year history and customer base that exceeds 230,000 organizations, just about everyone is!  And yes, the winner will still be chosen via popular vote.

Open Sponsorship Program:  The Synergy Sponsorship program is also open to participants from around the industry.  Companies like AppSense, Wyse, ThinPrint, GreenBytes and Logic Monitor are planning to be there.  If there is a company you'd like to see on the list, click here to request information that you can forward along to them.

Clearly, we're off to a good start...and there's more to come!  Stay tuned for additional information about a variety of social media technologies we plan to employ in San Francisco to share the event in an  even more open fashion than we have in the past.

NetScaler 9.1 has been integrated with Siebel 8.1.1 Customer Relationship Management

Citrix NetScaler 9.1 is a Web application delivery controller that ensures that applications such as those in Siebel CRM 8.1.1 are always available, performing well and protected.

Integration Details

Citrix NetScaler 9.1 is an integrated Web application delivery controller appliance that provides advanced traffic management through Layer 4-7 content switching and rewrites and redirects. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) offloading is also performed. NetScaler appliances are available in three editions running on a wide range of hardware platforms. NetScaler 9.1 is available both on hardware appliances (NetScaler MPX appliances) and as a virtual appliance (NetScaler VPX).

NetScaler 9.1 application delivery controllers are deployed in front of Oracle's Siebel Customer Relationship Management (Siebel CRM) 8.1.1.

NetScaler 9.1 performs:

• L7 content switching
• TCP multiplexing
• SSL termination
• Content rewriting
• Caching
• Compression

NetScaler 9.1 template for Siebel 8.1.1

NetScaler Application Templates - introduced in NetScaler 9.0 - provide an application centric view of the NetScaler's configuration. From a single place within the GUI NetScaler administrators can configure and view relevant application delivery policies such as content switching, Load Balancing, SSL Offload, Content Rewriting, Caching, Compression and Application Firewall.

A template was created and used for this NetScaler 9.1 integration with Siebel 8.1.1. It is available for download for free, and if you don't have any NetScaler or Siebel experience this is a great way to get your NetScaler pre-configured for Siebel application delivery.

Download Siebel 8.1.1 Application Template for NetScaler 9.1

Download NetScaler VPX here

If your not running XenServer yet, you should be, its free

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

 A Managed Service Provider (or MSP) provides Network Administration, On-demand Support, Strategic Consulting and Centralized Services usually off premise to their end customers. The model for the past 5 years has been inclusive of all these services with an emphasis on the On-Demand Support element as billable hours have been the most profitable portion of the business.  With the emergence of virtual data centers, another model has also emerged for Centralized Services.  MSPs are becoming polarized between providing virtual data centers or web hosting centers.  Some companies provide both but we find that in many cases there is a symbiotic relationship between the two.  MSPs focused on providing off premise virtual servers or virtual machines (VMs) bring their service offering to both end subscribers and to other web hosting MSPs.  Web Hosters create web assets, including web sites, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and advertising medium for their customers but often rely on VM hosters for data center creation and administration.

As the number of MSPs have grown in these two categories a third MSP type emerged to satisfy the entire Information Technology support of a corporation.  These are typically known as Full Service MSPs and will supply term contracts to large corporations for a customized full service IT approach, including all aspects of the business mentioned above and including Business Continuity.  These full service IT MSPs have served their purpose well in creating value for their end customers in the form of lower OpEx and CapEx as well as a very profitable On-demand Support model for themselves.

As the economic crises of 2008-2009 began to unfold, all three MSP types began to feel the pressure of their specialties.  VM hosters, providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) now have the likes of Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, RackSpace and Terremark to contend with.  In an effort to differentiate themselves and provide more volume business, many Web Hosters have included Software as a Service (SaaS)business grade email hosting services such as Microsoft Exchange.  There are now hundreds of these "Exchange" hosting companies in the market.  In both cases (VM and Web hosting) the business model is rapidly being commoditized.  Stuck smack in the middle are the Full Service MSPs with the opposite problem.  They have become so customized in their solutions offerings that their expenses are beginning to sky rocket and as a result are having difficulty in renewing their massive term based service contracts with large corporations.

There is another MSP emerging as a result of these market pressures and commoditization.  They are the Citrix Service Providers.  As depicted in the illustration above, the "Iceberg" of opportunity is beginning to show signs of revenues through hosting not one or two applications, but the entire suite of office productivity applications.  As longer term service contracts are expiring, corporations are now looking to further manage down their operations expenses and these CSPs are leading the way.  By using a multi-tenant, single instance management approach, the CSP creates a greater economy of scale for their end subscribers while at the same time providing the highest levels of security and business continuity.

Starting with the SMB, corporations are seeing that they can "job out" their IT services without paying an exorbitant fee.  As they become accustomed to this model, they are also now collaborating to offload Line of Business (LOB) Applications which in many cases are similar from one business to another.  The further into the "Higher Valued Services" an MSP goes, the more likely their customer is to see higher value in their offering.  This is because CSPs provide a similar service offerings as their older Full Service MSP cousins, but at a much lower cost to the end customer.

As more and more end users come onboard, the CSP can create a better economy of scale for LOB applications in varying market verticals.  For instance, a Financial LOB application can be offered up to multiple Financial organizations who require the same type of service at a fraction of the cost.

Stay tuned for press in 2010 and specific case studies around these emerging CSPs.

Hi Folks,

I was rebuilding my LAB over the weekend, and in an effort to make the new iteration better than the last, I duct taped 2 more SCSI arrays into my server. Having done that, I realized that I ran out of power plugs - necessary to power up my CD-ROM.

My First Thought was to go run out to Fry's and get another Y power splitter.

My Second Thought was to break one of the arrays just long enough to install the OS - but this would be a repeating problem every time XenServer is updated.

I then searched the web to see what I could do to install XenServer from a USB stick - here is what I found.

1. Download XenServer (1 ISO for installer + 1 ISO for XenServer linux-cd)
2. Download http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
3. Format a USB stick as FAT
3. Run uNetBootIn and select the XenServer Installer OS.iso and point it at the USB Stick and press OK

4. Open the Linux CD with something like PowerIso and copy the following directories to the USB stick:
a. client_install
b. packages.linux
Doing this will allow you to have both the Installer + the Linux CD on 1 USB Stick
5. Renaming Some Files on the USB stick (otherwise you'll get an additional boot menu):
Rename \syslinux.cfg to syslinux_cfg.old
Rename \boot\isolinux to syslinux
Rename \boot\syslinux\isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg
6. At this point you're done - stick the USB stick into the Server where you'd like to install XenServer
7. Go Into the BIOS setup and make sure to select USB as the first boot from device.
8. Beer-Thirty!

References: (Thank you's)

1. The Generation V

2. XenAppBlog

Connect to NetScaler VPX with Workflow Studio

By now you have heard of Citrix Delivery Center and it's various components. Automating resources in the cloud is easy. One way is through the use of Citrix Workflow Studio to automatically provision the Citrix NetScaler.

Workflow Studio is easy to use, but you might need some help getting over the hump, so I am going to walk you through getting the two working together.

First I installed XenServer 5.5 on a Dell 2950 I had running in the lab, it was leftover from other projects, so I didn't have to buy any new hardware. Then I installed Citrix Workflow Studio and the NetScaler VPX onto the XenServer. Both have free evaluation copies available on the Citrix Website. I now have a complete setup using virtual machines.

I launched Workflow Studio, created a Category and a new Workflow, connected to the NetScaler and then disconnected from the NetScaler.

Follow these simple steps and you will be on your way to data center automation.

Steps to re-create this POC

• Install XenServer - Its free
• Install Windows 2008 server & Citrix Workflow Studio in XenServer - Free eval
• Install NetScaler VPX in XenServer - Free eval

• Follow the steps in the video:
  • Create Workflow Categoy
  • Create Workflow
  • Connect to NetScaler
  • Disconnect from NetScaler

Its easy, try it

Download WFS here

Download NetScaler VPX here

If your not running XenServer yet, you should be, its free

Its easy, watch and learn

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

WFS dynamically provisions NetScaler VPX for SAP Load Balancing

In a previous post I discussed some use cases around the automatic provisioning of load balancing on a Citrix NetScaler using Citrix Workflow Studio.

We recently completed the follow-on project of creating a Workflow Studio script to perform a "Loop" to check the SAP Status Server on a regular basis, and dynamically Enable or Disable server load balancers in the NetScaler.

Drawing on the use cases from the previous post, we decided to build one WFS script to dynamically handle everything:

• Auto-configure new SAP services
• Graceful shutdown of SAP services

The latest script reads the SAP Status Server every x minutes or seconds, and based on the information in the SAP Status file, determines if a load balancing service should be enabled or disabled. This is useful for when SAP Servers are marked as "Down" and the NetScaler needs to reflect this change, dynamically. When the SAP Server comes back online, WFS enables the service in the NetScaler.

The WFS program that was designed to read the SAP Status Server is based on the SAP Message Server API specification, which can be found by clicking here.

SAP Status Message file format

<server-list> = "version" <major>"."<minor> CRLF
<sap-server-name> CRLF
<protocol-type> <host> <port> <description> CRLF
...
<protocol-type> <host> <port> <description> CRLF
CRLF
<sap-server-name> CRLF
<protocol-type> <host> <port> <description> CRLF
...
<protocol-type> <host> <port> <description> CRLF

SAP Message field to NetScaler Config Mapping

WFS Use Case

Read the file http://10.217.105.139/SAPStatus.htm
Skip 1st line. (version 1.2).

Loop1:
Read the sap-server-name, create Citrix NS Service.

  Loop2:
  Read message line.
  If Description LB=0, shutdown the service.
  If Description LB<>0 && doesn't already exists the service, add the server and service:
  Server = host
  Port = port
  Protocol = HTTP if J2EE, HTTPS if J2EES.
  Sleep 30 seconds
  End Loop2. (if line = blank).

End Loop1. (eof)

Sample SAPStatus.htm file used in this POC

version 1.2
J2EE187834720
J2EE Server1 51800 LB=2
J2EES Server1 51801 LB=2
P4 Server1 51804 LB=2
P4S Server1 51805 LB=2
IIOP Server1 51806 LB=2
IIOPS Server1 51807 LB=2
TELNET Server1 51808 LB=2

J2EE187834721
J2EE Server2 55000 LB=1
P4 Server2 55004 LB=1
IIOP Server2 55007 LB=1
TELNET Server2 55008 LB=1

J2EE187834722
J2EE Server3 56000 LB=0
P4 Server3 56004 LB=0
IIOP Server3 56007 LB=0
TELNET Server3 56008 LB=0

Where:
Server1 is the Citrix NS Service Name
J2EE indicates use the HTTP Protocol
J2EES indicates use the HTTPS Protocol also.
51800 is the port number to use on the backend
LB=2 indicates the service is up and running (LB<>0)

Get your own and try it

Download WFS here

Download NetScaler VPX here

Download the WFS Script here

Download NetScaler config file here

Download Sample SAPStatus.htm file here

If your not running XenServer yet, you should be, its free

Dynamic Load Balancing in action

Tap into the power of AppExpert!

Introduction

Over the last year, a number of people have asked me for ideas regarding how to create a pool of 2 (or so) XenServers without having to spend thousands of pounds on shared storage.

The simplistic answer is that you don't need any shared storage in order to create a XenServer Pool, but without it you have export and re-import VMs if you want to "load balance" your XenServers. Of course, the export/import approach is slow, and this is usually the problem that people are trying to solve.

The profile of user that I am thinking about in this document may have access to a team XenServer pool somewhere (with properly funded shared storage), but they primarily use a XenServer under their desk. They now want to put another XenServer under their desk and share out the VMs.

Example scenario

Consider 2 test engineers who each have a Dell Precision 380 with 4GB memory. Although these machines are getting a bit old, they are capable of running XenServer, and can each run <4 VMs.

A new project comes along which requires greater use of Windows 2008 R2, and Windows 7, but there is only budget to buy 1 Dell T3400 with 8Gb of memory and faster processors. One tester is all smiles, and the other one ends up with 2 Dell 380s and wants to pool them so that he/she can (manually) load balance the VMs.

Bearing in mind that in 6 months time there may be budget to upgrade the second tester, it would be useful if there were some pre-defined shared strorage solutions that might be adopted.

At present I suspect that many people assume that there is not a solution and either a) waste time inventing a "new" storage solution, b) waste time exporting and importing VMs, or c) waste resources by asymmetrically loading their XenServers.

In order to flush out any diverse ideas on how to create shared storage, I recently distributed a survey asking people to share their experiences and to let me know what shared storage solutions they are using. This document collates the feedback received.

Possible solutions

The "correct way"

Use an Equalogic, NetApp or similar appliance.

In my view this is an "enterprise class" solution is outside the scope of this document.

However, you should use something like this if a) you plan to run a production work load, b) any disk, data or VM loss would be expensive, c) you plan to do any performance measurement.

Advantages

-         Optimum performance with resilience to disk failure.

-         Supported by XenSource, and by hardware manufacturer.

-         This is usually the best solution in the long run.

Disadvantage

-         Initial cost.

OpenFiler "loopback" VM

The idea here is that you install a pre-built OpenFiler appliance VM on some local/un-shared storage on one of your XenServers. As well as a system disk, the OpenFiler VM has an large additional disk that will be used to provide the shared storage. The OpenFiler appliance then shares its large disk using NFS, and the XenServer uses this share to create an NFS based Storage Repository that can be shared.

This approach is fully described in "XenServer_Demo_and_Evaluation_Setup_Guide_v5.5.1" (CTX118735).

Advantages

-         Other than disk space this is almost a no-cost solution.

-         It is well documented in CTX118735.

-         XenSource make extensive use of OpenFiler servers when testing XenServer.

Disadvantages -

-         This solution is probably the least resilient to failures.

-         Not fast.

-         XenSource do not believe that OpenFiler would handle any significant stress .

-         The OpenFiler VM must be running before any other VMs can start, and in some cases it may be necessary to "repair" the shared SR before other VMs can start.

OpenFiler on a re-purposed PC

This is very similar to the OpenFiler "Loopback" VM (above), but in this case OpenFiler is installed on a physical device such as an old PC or server.

Download Openfiler from http://www.openfiler.com/ and install it on an old PC or server. OpenFiler can then be used to host an NFS server that is suitable use with XenServer.

 The installation process is described at http://www.openfiler.com/learn/how-to/graphical-installation, is generally quite straightforward, and should not scare those who fear LINUX.

Configuration of OpenFiler for use with XenServers is probably best described in "XenServer_Demo_and_Evaluation_Setup_Guide_v5.5.1"  (CTX118735).

The cost of SATA disks often makes it worth installing a SATA disk controller card if new or additional disk space is required.

System 3 are currently testing a Dell 380 to host 300Gb of shared storage for a pool of 2 Dell 380 XenServers. No performance data has been taken but the solution has been seen to work.

Advantages

-         It's easy to set up.

-         A repurposed server, or the inclusion of a RAID card could offer better speed and resilience when compared with an OpenFiler "loopback" VM.

-         XenSource make extensive use of OpenFiler servers for testing XenServer.

-         Less demanding on older hardware

Disadvantages

-         XenSource do not believe that OpenFiler would handle any significant stress.

-         Old hardware may not be reliable or supportable.

FreeNAS

In many ways FreeNAS is similar to OpenFiler in that it is a cut down version of UNIX that has been configured for maximum NAS (Network Attached Storage) performance, and minimum exposure to UNIX.

One respondent who has tried FreeNAS said "... its setup can be completed in 10-15 minutes .... OS footprint is just 64MB, and boot to OS is just a less than 20sec process. The maintenance is almost zero."

Advantages

-         It's easy to set up.

-         Less demanding on older hardware.

Disadvantages

-         Old hardware may not be reliable or supportable.

LINUX  on a re-purposed PC

Instead of installing OpenFiler on a re-purposed PC, most people who responded to my request for information used Linux to serve NFS; Ubuntu was the most popular distribution.

Installing Ubuntu is described https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/installation-guide/i386/index.htmland https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

Installation of NFS on Ubuntu is described here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpNFSHowTo#Minimalistic%20NFS%20Set%20Up

The cost of SATA disks often makes it worth installing a SATA disk controller card if new or additional disk space is required.

Linux distributions that have been seen to work.

-         Ubuntu with an EXT4 filesystem, serving NFS.

-         Susie with a Razor filesystem, serving NFS.

-         Fedora with an XFS filesystem, serving NFS.

-         In System 3 we use an old Fedora 6 NFS server to provide shared storage to some of our XenServers, and iSCSI for VMware Virtual Infrastructure.

Advantages

-         A repurposed server, or the inclusion of a RAID card could offer better speed and resilience when compared with an OpenFiler "loopback" VM.

-         Of those who responded to my request for information, this was the most popular solution.

-         Depending on your hardware, this maybe the fastest solution for providing shared storage for small XenServer Pools. One respondent has done some performance comparisons using an HP Prolient DL380 (2GB mem) with an HP Smart Array P600 SAS RAID Controller.

-         Ubuntu with an EXT4 filesystem - 225MBps.

-         Susie with a Razor filesystem - Very good.

-         Fedora with an XFS filesystem - Good.

-         Free BSD with a UFS filesystem - Average.

Disadvantages

-         Old hardware may not be reliable or supportable.

-         Some people aren't comfortable with  Linux

NFS service on a Windows 2008 R2 server.

Windows 2008 R2 now includes an NFS server. It should therefore be possible to host an NFS service on an existing Windows 2008 R2 Server.

In addition to the full graphical version of Windows 2008 R2 Server, there is also the lighter weight Core product which may offer increased performance for a given hardware platform.

NFS services have to be installed separately and the following documents describe how to install and configure NFS on Windows 2008 R2.

 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753302%28WS.10%29.aspx

and on Windows 2008 R2 core

http://blogs.technet.com/jorke/archive/2008/09/10/configuring-nfs-on-windows-server-2008-core.aspx

Advantages

-         Some people feel more comfortable with a Windows solution

-         You may not need any additional hardware as you should be able to add NFS services to an existing Windows 2008 R2 server.

-         Windows 2008 R2 Server may also be used to create shared storage for Hyper-V clusters.

Disadvantages

-         If using old hardware, it may not be reliable or supportable.

StarWind Free iSCSI Target on a Windows.

Another solution that uses a Windows PC or Server is StarWind iSCSI Target. The free version, which supports up to 2 TB, can be downloaded from http://www.starwindsoftware.com/free

"StarWind Free software is provided only for personal use, demoing, training, or test and development and may not be used for commercial or production purposes".

Advantages

-         Some people feel more comfortable with a Windows solution

-         You may not need any additional hardware as you should be able to add StarWind to an existing Windows PC or Server.

-         StarWind may also be used to create shared storage for Hyper-V clusters.

-         The inclusion of an iSCSI based Storage Repository allows you to enable XenServer's High Availability option. While you are unlikely to need this in a small XenServer pool, it may be useful if you need to include HA in your testing.

Disadvantages

-         If using old hardware, it may not be reliable or supportable.

-         Some people feel more comfortable with a non-Windows solution

Windows Storage Server 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/wss08.aspx

One respondent has just started using Windows Storage Server 2008 on a Dell T3500.

The primary purpose of this is to provide clustered storage for a Hyper-V / SCVMM development environment, but it may also be an option for XenServer.

Advantages

-         Some people feel more comfortable with a Windows solution

-         Developers and Testers may have a suitable MSDN licenses that would allow them use this solution in a development or test environment.

-         Windows Storage Server may also be used to create shared storage for Hyper-V clusters.

-         The inclusion of an iSCSI based Storage Repository allows you to enable XenServer's High Availability option. While you are unlikely to need this in a small XenServer pool, it may be useful if you need to include HA in your testing.

Disadvantages

-         Some people feel more comfortable with a non-Windows solution

-         I have no feedback on performance to date. 

Buffalo TeraStation appliance

One respondent has tried a  Buffalo Terastation but did not continue as write performance was too weak.

Other Considerations / Recommendations

-         Make sure that the network between the XenServers and the storage server is as fast as possible. Ideally they should be connected to the same Gigabit switch.

-         Consider putting the storage traffic on a separate "private" network, if you have sufficient NICs in your servers.

-         In Chalfont System 3 we have a Dell PowerEdge 1600 SC server running Fedora 6. It would have been prohibitively expensive to upgrade it with 1.5 TB of SCSI disks so we left the SCSI boot disk in place and added 4 x 500Gb SATA disks attached to a new "Adaptec SERIAL ATA II RAID 2820SA ROHS with battery backup". We chose this SATA card because it offered RAID, and because it supported "Write Back". My understanding was that this would be faster than "Write Through", although this indicates that this is debatable.

This storage server currently only supports 2 x VMware ESX hosts using iSCSI, and it is fast enough. We have not done any recent performance measurements on this system.

-         It would be nice to be able to make objective recommendations about which of the above solutions was "best", but with the available information, I can't. 

What I can say is that of the people who responded to my survey:-

o   Most were using Ubuntu on a re-purposed PC.

o   OpenFiler is probably easier to set up if you are a UNIX rooky.

o   There are Windows solutions, but at least one respondent rejected these because it was felt that they would not be as fast as an Ubuntu solution.

Hopefully someone will have measured this and will be willing to share their results.

Acknowledgements

With thanks to all those who responded to my initial survey.

Thanks also to those who may provide feedback or additional content.

You've Got Questions

As we roll into 2010, you likely have questions like, How do I sell virtualization solutions? How do I train my consultants? How do I identify prospects?, How do I generate customer demand?

To help our partners answer these questions and more, we have developed a Partner Development Toolkit which provides links to a wealth of online resources - all organized to answer specific questions.

We'd like a small group of Citrix Partners to have a look at it and provide feedback. The first 50 partners to send a note with a subject line: PDT to partnerprograms@citrix.com can have the beta version sent to them in email.

Thanks for helping us make this a better tool for everyone in the Citrix Partner Network!

I sometimes get the question if it is possible to boot a virtul machine in XenServer from a USB drive or a stick. Therefore I thought that now is the time to do my first blog entry to show how you can boot a virtual machine from a USB drive.

First of all you need a USB drive which is prepared as a bootable device. For my demo I have used a old 1GB USB stick installed with a Ubuntu 9.10 Live System. To create this stick as a bootable device with all the necessary data on it I used the LinuxLive USB Creator 2.2. This tool makes it very easy to format the USB drive, install a linux distribution on the drive and make the drive bootable.

Once the drive is ready you can attach the USB drive to your physical XenServer. In my case I tried it with XenServer 5.5 Update1 but it also should work with earlier versions of XenServer.

Now I created a virtual machine with a simple standard configuration of CPU, RAM and network and also attached a small disk of 3GB. Take care that the virtual machine is configured to boot from hard disk.

Then go to the storage tab of the virtual machine and attach the USB stick. Therefore press the attach button and in the screen comming up select the USB device which is listed under removable storage. Press the attach button.

As a result you now can see two disks in the storage tab. But if we want to boot from the USB stick we have to take care that the USB stick is the first drive in all our attached drives. By default after attaching the USB drive it will be the last one in the list of drives which you can also see when you take a look at the device positions.

To change the device position select the USB device in the storage tab and press on the properties button. Go to the virtual machine section and change the device position to "0". If there already is a drive attached at position 0 XenCenter will ask you what to do.

In our case we will swap the disks because we only have attached two disks, the USB stick and the local 3GB disk. If you have attached more than one local disk it will be the best to level up the device positions for all attached disk by one to make device position 0 free for the USB stick and then configure the USB stick at device position 0.

Now your virtual machine is ready to boot up from the USB stick. If you start the virtual machine it willcome up with the Ubuntu live system installed on our USB stick.

In this example I used a simple Ubuntu disribution to show how to boot a virtual machine from a USB stick but in real there are more use cases to do this. For example a software distribution systems could be configured to boot from a USB stick to connect to the deployment server and do a complete remote install of the operating system. 

There is a cry to the IT industry today to provide succinct information about Cloud Computing... especially among Small and Medium Businesses (SMB).  According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, over 52% of all small businesses are actually Small Office-Home Office or SOHO businesses.  The need for these companies to keep their operational costs down is tantamount to their success.  Because IT is a huge part of these businesses (everything from web site marketing to CRM applications) utilizing services online are a natural way for these companies to keep their costs down.

But in order for the small business owner to understand that online "Cloud" based services are available for reducing operational costs, they first have to know where to find them.  Awareness is key to the entire eco-system and making it easy for businesses to access these services can only happen if the SMB knows where to shop.  There are a variety of web sites that cater strictly to the SMB market, such as SMB Nation or the Small Business Administration in the U.S.  I recently saw a national TV ad for a site called the American Express Open Forum and was excited to check it out.  Unfortunately they are limiting the ability to post information to a "invited list only" at this point which radically reduces the idea of an "open" forum.

One additional way to find out more about available technology in this space is through the university systems both in the U.S. and abroad.  Many universities have teamed up with local (and sometimes worldwide) businesses to provide forums for emerging technologies.  The business school at Stanford for instance runs a program called the Social Innovation Review which educates the community about emerging business technologies.  Stanford, known for its tremendous ability to produce entrepreneurs is a great source for budding Cloud companies.  There are also technical colleges who are attempting to bridge the gap between small business and technology forerunners such as Cloud Hosting providers.  The business school within Georgia Institute of Technology has an Economic Development program to tie business and technology together.  Working with Industry the University of Cambridge also has a program dubbed the Cambridge Enterprise to develop community based influence of technology enhancements.

Search Engine Optimization is playing a huge part in these millions of businesses worldwide getting access to Cloud based hosted solutions.  Do a Google search on "Cloud Computing" and you will see a hit list of 31 million.  In the top 10 you can find salesforce.com and Amazon.  Which is ironic as what most SMBs are looking for has more to do with business productivity including email and some kind of web hosting than taking care of their sales leads or putting together VMs from Amazon.  Tweak the search to "hosted email" and Microsoft Exchange pops up all over the place.  Tweak the search again to "hosted applications" and you'll receive back the most mixed up bag of information you've ever seen.

The SMB is not about technorati or the latest buzz words.  They just want to know how to get hosted applications that cost them less per month than setting up an IT group.  Citrix Service Providers meet the needs of these SMBs but must use the proper techniques to be found.  That is exposure through media mentioned in this BLOG as well as SEO nomenclature that will take you to the top of the Google Search Engines.  An SMB should be able to type in "Internet Applications", "Hosted Applications" or "Windows Applications Online" and find you.  If they can't, then Cloud computing for the SMB will remain a mystery.

It's year end, and some virtualization beat writers are desperate for something to tempt eyeballs and hopefully lift their click-through rates. Anything for a bit of cheer. And since real news is lacking, and research and analysis are no longer required, why not make something up? Now, if you're lacking any creativity, have no research whatsoever to base your work on, and you're facing a deadline, you could always dig up something else that one of your colleagues made up a while ago, and re-hash it. That fine graduate degree in literary arts should allow you to re-cast the familiar plot in fine sounding prose, and with any luck the punters will go for it. After all, if he said it, it must be true, right? And who cares, as long as we get some clicks.

I think I've concluded that there are a few people whose predictions about the future I will never believe. They are precisely those who are compensated based on clicks and not insight, and who seldom take the time to check for data or accuracy. So, just for the record, here are a few facts for the next person who cares to predict the imminent demise of XenServer.

Citrix XenServer added over 35,000 new customers in 2009 in the virtual infrastructure category alone, and we saw over 200,000 downloads of the product within three quarters. XenServer is also a fully supported feature for every one of the ~200,000 customers of Citrix XenApp, and we have seen tremendously strong uptake in the core Citrix business virtualizing XenApp. XenServer is also merely a feature of XenDesktop, and is currently the supported platform for Netscaler VPX. In the delivery of Virtual Desktops XenServer is critical to XenDesktop because it outperforms every other hypervisor for desktop workloads (yes, including ESX - and even when VMware's sub-optimal memory optimizations are turned on). XenServer is also the only alternative to VMware that meets 100% of the Burton Group's requirements for enterprise production virtualization.

XenServer is incredibly strategic for Citrix. Our development goal for next year is to be able to optimally deliver over 100,000 virtual desktops. To successfully do so requires us to be able to deal with over 10GB/s of sustained block I/O for desktop OSes, deliver over 100Mb/s of 3D desktop traffic, and offer the fabulous "HD" user experience for which Citrix delivery solutions are renowned. In doing this, we will also be the pre-eminent virtual infrastructure platform for private and public clouds.

Now, to specifically take odds with the latest incarnation of the rather tiresome "Xen is dead" theme, it ought to be obvious to anyone with a shred of insight into the industry, that no vendor would acquire 35,000 customers one year, be acknowledged by the leading analyst group in the virtualization industry as having the #2 feature set, and walk away the next. Similarly, no vendor would introduce a critically important strategic feature into their core product one year, and then rip it out the next. Similarly, given our commitment to the open source community, and our powerful community development partnerships with Oracle, Intel, AMD, VA Linux, Fujitsu, Novell, Red Hat and over 45 others, it ought to be rather obvious that delivering a rich set of innovative features into open source would be a theme that we would seek to accelerate, to deliver more features to our partners, and to benefit from the contribution of theirs. Moreover, an assertion that open source is a negative value proposition demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the major trend in cloud computing, in which a rich enterprise virtual infrastructure foundation, available in open source, is the core building block of every significant Infrastructure as a Service offering.

I thought I'd help my friends at TechTarget get a better understanding of how prolific Xen and XenServer are, and since they have no real research to go on, so I purchased them a small Christmas present: The domains searchxen.com and searchxenserver.com - missing until now from their stable. I will gladly transfer these domains to them, together with the pre-configured automatic email notification that will be delivered to Alex Barrett and Brian Madden every time a download is made from xen.org or XenServer5.com. After all, there's nothing quite like a thousand emails a day to remind you of a free gift that just keeps giving. Finally, I've also registered www.searchcitrix.com and will be giving that to the Citrix team to point forever at blogs.citrix.com or some such, just so there is somewhere where factual information about our products can be guaranteed to be found.

To all who contributed to Xen this year, whether in lines of code or simply by using it, thank you. And to those who have placed a bet on XenServer as a faster, free, simpler and more scalable virtual infrastructure platform than VMware, your confidence in us is not regarded lightly. We prize it. XenServer will will be faster, still free, more scalable, more widely used and superbly supported in 2010, and every year thereafter.

With best wishes for 2010

I'm pleased to announce that Workflow Studio 2.0.1 is now available:

Download Workflow Studio 2.0.1 (MyCitrix login required)

This update only includes new activity libraries and does not contain any changes to the core Workflow Studio engine. Here are some of the key new features:

New Activity Libraries

• Citrix XenDesktop Activity Library
  Activities that create, delete, and retrieve desktop definitions and manage desktop groups.

• Citrix Provisioning Server Activity Library
  Activities that create, delete, and retrieve provisioning server target devices.

Additions to Activity Libraries

• Citrix NetScaler Activity Library
  Now includes activities that enable you to:
  • Change the NetScaler configuration and tune load balancing.
  • Collect custom statistics for NetScaler NSService and global LBVServers.

• Citrix XenServer Activity Library
  Now includes activities that enable you to:
  • Automate the process of taking snapshots, backing up VMs, and backing up VM metadata for site migration and disaster recovery scenarios.
  • Automate the installation and update of tools on guest VMs.

• Networking Activity Library
  Now includes SNMP activities that enable you to write load-management workflows which can listen to SNMP agents for SNMP traps and then take appropriate actions.

• Citrix XenApp Activity Library
  Now includes activities that support automated application streaming packaging and application management.

• Active Directory Activity Library
  Now includes the Create Computer and Delete Computer activities.

More details on this release are available in the ReadMe.

Feel free to leave feedback in comments or email me directly.